While some U.S. cities have made substantial gains in clean energy, it’ll be hard to compete with San Francisco’s recently announced goal. Believe it or not, the City by the Bay plans to be 100% green-energy-powered by 2020.<

Solar power towers are the new trend in thermal power plants. Instead of rows of curved mirrors focusing sunlight onto miles of black tubing, power towers use Heliostat (sun-tracking) mirrors to focus light on a central tower.

The strongest La Nina weather event in nearly half a century, resulting in heavy rains and flooding which has damaged crops and flooded mines in Australia and Asia, may be at its peak, the Australian weather bureau said.<

Scientists have created the hottest temperature ever in the lab -- 4 trillion degrees Celsius -- hot enough to break matter down into the kind of soup that existed microseconds after the birth of the universe.<

Burning tropical forests drives global warming faster than the world's entire transport sector; there will be no solution to climate change without stopping deforestation

When was the last time you had a "rainforest picnic"? Or even, perhaps, an "all-day Amazon breakfast"?

Next time you are in a supermarket picking up a chicken sandwich for lunch, or fancy tucking in to a hearty breakfast of eggs, sausage and bacon before setting off for work, spare a thought for the Amazon.

Ecologists in Guatemala see a recent ruling by Canada's Supreme Court, which ordered Canadian mining companies to carry out rigorous environmental assessments, as a positive precedent that could help improve environmental controls over the mining industry in this Central American country.<

DETROIT - General Motors Co said on Tuesday it will set up a $246 million facility backed by funding from the U.S. government to build electric motors to power hybrids and possibly pure electric vehicles.<

ROME - Italy's government will unveil a much-awaited plan for new incentives for a rapidly growing solar energy sector on Feb. 11, Economic Development Undersecretary Stefano Saglia said on Tuesday.

Italian and international investors who piled into Italian solar industry lured by the current generous scheme have been on tiptoes to find out details of the new plan which would reduce incentives as the government aims to ease the budget burden.<

EVEN as a red dust storm was reminding Sydneysiders yesterday of climatic threats to life on Earth, hopeful signs of a change in the global diplomatic climate were emerging in New York.

Only incurable optimists are confident this week's one-day climate summit at the United Nations headquarters has ensured success at the December Copenhagen talks that are supposed to produce a more effective international deal to replace the deficient Kyoto Protocol, expiring in 2012.

California said it had approved the most aggressive energy efficiency plan among U.S. states on Thursday, earmarking $3.1 billion to retrofit homes and other programs that will cut power needs equivalent to three medium-sized power plants.<

Western Australia's pristine Kimberley Coast is under huge development pressure and it's not just the massive liquefied natural gas processing facility proposed for James Price Point, 60 kilometres north of Broome.<

At first glance, a humpback whale and a wind turbine don't have a lot in common. For that matter, neither do a shellfish and a sheet of plywood. But both sea creatures are the inspiration behind products designed using biomimicry, or looking to nature's designs and processes to solve human problems.<

Nissan's upcoming all-electric car could outsell hybrids like Toyota's Prius even though it can't drive more than about 100 miles (160 kilometres) without stopping to recharge, a senior executive says.<

Production of biodiesel in the European Union rose by more than 35 percent in 2008 and capacity will grow again this year although half the plants are idle due to poor demand, the EU producers group said on Wednesday.<

Australia's landmark carbon trade scheme, being watched around the world in the lead up to global climate talks in December, hit a political roadblock on Thursday when parliament delayed a vote on the plan until August.<

Thousands took the streets on June 13 for the National Climate Emergency Rallies. Protesters declared a climate emergency and demanded the Australian government take emergency action on climate change.

The generation of most electricity produces enormous amounts of heat which is typically wasted - literally up the chimney. Cogeneration - or "Combined Heat and Power" systems make use of this otherwise wasted heat to warm buildings.

India will submit plans within weeks to slow its rise in carbon emissions significantly and to generate more solar power by 2020 than the whole world generates now, a senior climate official said on Thursday.<

Did you know that our food system is responsible for 1/3 of our green house gas emissions? So yes, there can be serious harm in grabbing a quarter-pounder, fries, and a Coke. You may have been there: You are starved, the drive through is right there, and you're tempted to succumb to that deliciously salty, greasy fry smell -- don't do it! Your personal carbon footprint depends on it.

Chopping down forests in the Brazilian Amazon produces a boom-and-bust economy that draws poor people to newly-cleared land but ultimately leaves them no better off, researchers reported on Thursday.

Environmental activists have long contended that this was the case but a new study in the journal Science quantified the phenomenon by tracking different stages of deforestation that have been occurring for decades.<

A car that has neither an engine nor a muffler will debut on the Japanese market next month. Developed by Mitsubishi Motors Corp. the "i-MiEV" is the world's first mass-produced zero-emission minicar that does not need an internal combustion engine because it runs on a motor charged with electricity.<

Australia's major river system, the Murray-Darling, has recorded its third-lowest water intake in 118 years, due to a long-running drought that will continue to suppress production of export crops such as cotton.<